How to Install Boxee and XBMC on AppleTV for Watching TV and Movies
There has been a hacking revolution ablaze for some time, in which people take different pieces of hardware and expand on their capabilities. One favorite medium for these industrious hackers is the AppleTV, Apple's all-in-one media entertainment center. Out of the box, AppleTV works seamlessly with iTunes, allowing music and video to be shared from other Macs and allowing for content direct from YouTube and the iTunes store. But under the hood, the AppleTV is really a minicomputer running OS X, thereby making it capable of so much more. Some of the more popular hacks that are done to the AppleTV is to install Boxee and XBMC software. XBMC is a full media center application that allows you to manage and enjoy media that you may have shared out all over your network. Boxee, on the other hand, is an XBMC-derived platform that comes preconfigured to view streaming media straight off the Internet from a variety of sites, including Hulu (recently suspended), CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, Last.fm and many more. In the past, getting these types of applications onto the AppleTV was a daunting task involving connecting to the AppleTV using SSH through a Unix terminal. But now, thanks to a handy application called ATVUSB Creator, you too, can have these hacks running on your AppleTV in just a matter of minutes by using just a simple flash drive. Here is how to install Boxee and XBMC.
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Things You'll Need
- A Mac running OSX
- An Apple TV
- A USB Flash Drive
- ATVUSB Creator Software (See Resources Section for Download)
Instructions
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Download the atvusb-creator software (see Resources below). These directions are for Mac, but there is a Windows version available. This will download a zip file to your hard drive.
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Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac. If you have important files on your flash drive, be sure to back them up, because everything on the flash drive is about to be erased. Just a word of warning from the Net Admin side of me: eject any other USB flash drives and USB hard drives you may have connected before running this (you wouldn't want to write over them by mistake--and you can't be too careful).
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Extract the zip file that you downloaded and run the atvusb-creator application.
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Leave everything checked on the list that shows what applications are about to be installed on the flash drive. Hit "Create Using" and the application will format and write to your flash drive. It will tell you when it is complete. Now you can remove the flash drive and go to your Apple TV.
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Make sure that your AppleTV is running the version 2.3 update before proceeding to the next step. You can check this by going to Settings > General > About on the AppleTV. If not, run the AppleTV update first by going to Settings > General > Update Software. If you don't have your AppleTV updated, the applications will not install correctly.
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Power off the AppleTV by unplugging it. With the power off, insert the flash drive into the USB port on the back of the AppleTV. Now plug the Apple TV's power back in. The AppleTV will boot off of the flash drive and you will see a black screen with a bunch of text go by. Once it's done, unplug the power to the AppleTV again, remove the flash drive and then power on the AppleTV again.
* Note: DO NOT boot off the flash drive twice! (If you do, you will have to completely restore your AppleTV to factory settings and start all over again.)
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Once your AppleTV reboots, you can now access Boxee and XBMC through the "Launcher" menu item. You may need to run the updates in Launcher > Downloads before Boxee will load. Congratulations, now you're an AppleTV hacker!
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Tips & Warnings
This tutorial is relatively simple and painless to follow, but understand that this is a hack, and if you "brick" your Apple TV, we're not to blame. You've been warned! Thanks.
If you've already upgraded to Apple TV's 2.3, don't upgrade to 2.3.1 because it will get rid of Boxee. Until there's a workaround, do not update.
